EAST, MICHAEL  

Probably a distant relation of the music printer and publisher Thomas East, Michael East was well enough established as a composer of madrigals in Elizabethan England to be able to contribute to Thomas Morley’s The Triumphs of Oriana in 1601. He was employed in later years at Ely and then Lichfield Cathedral.

Vocal Music

Between 1604 and 1638 East published seven collections of vocal works, madrigals, anthems and fancies, secular and sacred works, offering, as was the custom, the alternative possibility of instrumental performance. His secular texts often follow the pastoral fashion of the contemporary madrigal, while his sacred works include verse anthems.